Spitting spider

Taxobox
name = Spitting spiders


image_width = 200px
image_caption = Scytodes thoracica
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Arachnida
ordo = Araneae
superfamilia = Scytodoidea
familia = Scytodidae
familia_authority = Blackwall, 1864
diversity_link = List of Scytodidae species
diversity = 5 genera, 169 speciescheck|date=September 2008
range_

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range_map_width = 250px
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = see text

Spitting spiders (family "Scytodidae") are spiders of the genus "Scytodes" and their relatives. There are five genera and over 150 species of scytodids worldwide. They catch their prey by spitting a fluid that immobilizes it by congealing on contact into a venomous and sticky mass. They can be observed swaying from side to side, in order to cover the prey in a crisscrossed "Z" pattern; each of two pores in the chelicerae emits half of the pattern.

Like the "Sicariidae" and "Diguetidae" these spiders are haplogyne (lack hardened female genitalia) and have six eyes, which are arranged as three pairs. They differ from these in having a dome-shaped carapace and in their characteristic flecked pattern of spots, which to Westerners often resembles Arabic or Chinese writing.

Genera

*"Dictis" L. Koch, 1872 (China to Australia)
*"Scyloxes" Dunin, 1992 (Tajikistan)
*"Scytodes" Latreille, 1804 (worldwide)
*"Soeuria" Saaristo, 1997 (Seychelles)
*"Stedocys" Ono, 1995 (Malaysia, Thailand)

ee also

* List of Scytodidae species
* Spider families

External links

* [http://www.arachnology.org/Arachnology/Pages/Araneae.html Arachnology Home Pages: Araneae]
* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/Scytodidae/Scytodidae.htm Info about Spitting spider "Scytodes thoracica"]
* [http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog81-87/index.html Platnick, N.I. 2003. World Spider Catalog]